Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday swatch

You would not believe how effectively this song has stuck with me. Unh-unnnh, jazz it up!

Everyone knows Happy Birthday. I believe there are different variations of it; mine came from a mini-duo that was on clearance at Ulta (which I then got half off, woohoo!). It was paired with Raining Men and came with a make-up pouch covered in Happy Birthay-esque glitter. Unfortunately the people who designed the pouch did not cover the glitter with a "top coat" and only left it simply glued on, so little bits of glitter come off every time you touch it. My version of Happy Birthday is heavy on the silver, fuchsia, and green, but red, orange, yellow, and blue all factor in. I've layered on 3 coats here. My very first Deborah Lippmann!

My birthday was kind of shitty. It wasn't nearly as grand as such a milestone event deserves, and to top it off, the day itself has been filled with the digestive consequences of my week's indulgences. I guess that's one way to start off my old age. My birthday last year was MUCH more fun. Last year a bouncer outside of a strip club checked my ID and went, "Ooh, it's almost your birthday!" with an excited expression. Not a single person checking it said a thing this year. I want special attention like a child, dammit. A bartender on my first night out (I had two due to some of the complications that made the weekend kind of shitty) assured me that "your 30s are so much better" and gave me a free drink, so there's that! And even though my second night out was not what I wanted it to be, I'm glad I did it, because it was the last time I would see the friend I went out with for over a month (and she really needed a drink).

OPI Teenage Dream swatch

~sparkle~

Boy you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans, be my teenage dream tonight B|

A pink (not as silvery as my photos make it seem, I think), sheer, somewhat-frosty glitter filled with chunky silver holo glitter.  Good in 2 coats, but I used 3 for to fill out any patches.  You don't truly need the third coat because the polish is so sparkly, it's hard to notice the scant patches even if you're looking.

OPI Teenage Dream looks like a giant glittering diamond of a girly cupcake, and that's why I'm wearing it for my birthday weekend.  My birthday is in the middle of next week, and it's a big one, so I'm claiming this weekend (and possibly the entire prior week?) as included in "my birthday", and so far it's a shitty one.

Tangential story: I lost a few pounds two years running on a treadmill in my basement while listening to Katy Perry's album "Teenage Dream".  Let me tell you, it is a pop MASTERPIECE.  A guilty pleasure one, that is.  It's no Madonna's "Like a Prayer", but it is great for cardio.  The title song itself is a good warm-up, getting you pumped.  Usually when I start to falter, the beat of "E.T." re-energizes me.  Just thinking about the song "Teenage Dream" right now makes me want to go jogging and make my afternoon less shitty.  [Edit: I later did, and ended up injuring my ankle. That's the way it goes!]

From this collection, I was also a fan of The One that Got Away, appropriately named because I passed on buying it, then yearned for it for years until I found it recently in a CVS.  Too bad OPI didn't include a Let Me See Your Peacock as well.

Also, notice the price label on that OPI:  $8.50 from Trade Secret.  Remember when OPI was actually semi-affordable?  Now they're creeping up to $11, which I believe is what they are at CVS, at the least.  Don't even get me started on Zoya upping to $9.  And is Trade Secret still around?  It's where I first found OPI and Essie after starting my full-blown nail polish obsession (even though Essie and OPI are everywhere (though they were less so back then)).  A few months later, the store closed down.

Wet n Wild Wear Skinny Jeans swatch

Ahh, those raggedy cuticles.

Wet n Wild Wear Skinny Jeans is, based on all sources, a dupe for Essie Bikini So Teeny with a superior formula. A beautiful, vivid periwinkle with a shimmer you see as you apply, but disappears as soon as it dries. Brighter than it looks in the bottle and an easy two coats. Wet n Wild's wide brush made it so I only needed one stroke on some fingernails, though I was messy at the cuticles. I think the polish at the cuticles also stretched out as the nail grew. What was most surprising was how hardcore it held up. I put a lot of damage on my nails, and this polish stayed strong. It only started to chip after almost a week.

This is from the Silverlake spring 2015 collection, which I excitedly looked for but have yet to find anywhere outside of the Christmas Tree Shop, where of course I've only found the collection incomplete. A friend spotted it at an Air Force base commissary, but that's been it. The hipster names of the products are hilarious (my favorite is Warm Filter), and I love that it's named after a presumably hipster neighborhood in LA, which I hope to visit this summer.